The present invention is related to mobile telecommunications networks and to multi-access technology. Mobile telecommunications networks are based on different access technologies such as GSM, 3G, WLAN etc. The telecommunications networks that are available to a mobile terminal must be based on an access technology that is supported by the terminal. A mobile terminal may have a plurality of available networks to connect to, wherein the available networks may be based on different access technologies. The use of the different access technologies results in that different services may be provided by the networks to the terminal. Therefore it is desired to have a network based access awareness functionality such that the network can handle management of different services over different access technologies as well as selection of access network for different services. One of the basic components of such Access Awareness functionality is gathering of relevant information about the currently concerned mobile terminal and the available access networks. When the collected information is refined and analyzed, it forms the basis for choices and decisions regarding access selection and potential adaptation of services. It should also be noted that in the context of Access Awareness this information is sometimes referred to as “attributes” and the gathering of the information is then consequently labeled attribute collection.
The problem with the existing solutions is that for some access networks the regular information collection, i.e. the information collection performed by the Access
Awareness Entity in the network, cannot be performed. This includes access networks with lack of support for dissemination of such information, especially to access network external entities (i.e. entities, such as an Access Awareness Entity (AE), outside the access network, especially those located in another administrative domain), e.g. because there is no AE associated with the domain or because there is no means for network external entities to locate the relevant information sources in the concerned network. It also includes visited access networks, i.e. where the concerned user is roaming, for which the technical means are in place, but information collection is prohibited anyway, because the policies of the access network operator prohibit that some or all of the relevant information is delivered to an entity under another operator's control (unless the other operator has a special agreement with the access network operator).
In the former case the problem is technical, whereas the nature of the problem in the latter case is administrational, political or business strategic.